Hinge fastener

ABSTRACT

A BINGE FOR USE WITH PLANAR SHEETS, WHEREIN EACH HINGE ELEMENT IS FORMED FROM A SINGLE PIECE OF FLAT SHEET MATERIAL AND COMPRISES A BODY, A PINTLE RECEIVING MEMBER DISPOSED ALONE ONE EDGE OF THE BODY, AND A FLEXIBLE PERMANENTLY DEFORMABLE LOCKING TONGUE PROJECTING FROM THE OPPOSITE EDGE OF THE BODY. THE LOCKING TONGUE IS ADAPTED TO BE PASSED THROUGH THE PLANAR SHEET ON WHICH THE HINGE IS TO BE MOUNTED, BENT BACK TO OVELY THE BODY, PASSED THROUGH THE PLANAR SHEET AND AN ALIGNED APERTURE IN THE BODY AND AGAIN BENT BADK REVERSELY TO OVERLY THE BODY WHEREBY TO SECURELY LOCK THE HINGE ELEMENT TO THE PLANAR SHEET.

0d, 26, 19' BARKER 3,514,805

HINGE FASTENER Filed June 6, 1968 IMVENTOR DEALTRY EBARKER BY Y ATTORNEYS United States If 3,fil1,85 Patented Oct. 26, 1971 Int. Cl. nosa 9/00 US. Cl. 16128 9 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A hinge for use with planar sheets, wherein each hinge element is formed from a single piece of flat sheet material and comprises a body, a pintle receiving member disposed along one edge of the body, and a flexible permanently deformable locking tongue projecting from the opposite edge of the body. The locking tongue is adapted to be passed through the planar sheet on which the hinge is to be mounted, bent back to overly the body, passed through the planar sheet and an aligned aperture in the body and again bent back reversely to overly the body whereby to securely lock the hinge element to the planar sheet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to hinge fasteners and, more particularly, hinge fasteners for use with relatively thin fiat sheets of cardboard, millboard, beaverboard, corrugated board, plastic or the like.

Conventional hinge elements involve the use of rivets, screws, or nuts and bolts for fastening the hinge elements to the sheets which are to be hingedly connected. Such conventional fastening means however are unsuitable for use with many relatively thin sheets because often the material is not structurally strong, and therefore cannot satisfactorily retain a screw, rivet or bolt without tearing of the material and consequent loosening of the hinge elements mounted thereon. Additionally, screw, rivet and bolt heads project substantially beyond the surface of the sheets being hingedly connected, with the result that a relatively smooth flat surface is unobtainable and the hingedly connected sheets cannot rest fiat against one another when folded back upon themselves. Further, the exterior surface of the hinge joint does not have a smooth finished appearance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION I have found that the disadvantages of the prior art may be largely overcome by producing hinge elements of a relatively flat, flexible, permanently deformable material such as a thin guage metal. The hinge element is provided with a hinge body which is adapted to rest flat against a planar sheet to which the hinge element is to be attached. The hinge body is provided along one edge with a number of flexible, permanently deformable fingers, and along the opposite edge with an elongated flexible, permanently deformable locking tongue the function of which is to secure the hinge element to the planar sheet. The fingers are alternately bent to form pintle receiving members and U-shaped hooks adapted to embrace the edge of the planar sheet to which the hinge element is to be connected. The tongue is adapted to be threaded through the planar sheet, along the side of the planar sheet remote from that to which the hinge element is attached, through the planar sheet and an aperture disposed in the hinge body and back along the hinge body to securely attach, in conjunction with the hook elements, the hinge elements to the edge of the planar sheet.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the proposed hinge element may be attached to a planar sheet without the use of screws, bolts, rivets, etc. The hinge element will nevertheless be securely and rigidly attached to the sheet with little change of loosening notwithstanding the planar sheet may be composed of material which is strucurally weak, such as cardboard.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In drawings which illustrate an embodiment of the invention;

F IG. 1 is a plan view of a hinge element blank;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a second hinge element blank adapted to mate with the blank of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a hinge element formed from the blank of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a hinge element formed from the blank of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a side edge view of the hinge element of FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a side edge View of the hinge element of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a pictorial representation of a hinge connection employing the hinge element in accordance with this invention, and

FIG. 8 is a cross-section of the hinge joint of FIG. 7 taken along the line VIII-VIH.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The blanks for mating hinge ellements are depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2. In each case the blank comprises a generally rectangular fiat hinge body 10 and 20 with apertures 11 and 21 centrally disposed therein. One edge of hinge body 10 is provided with relatively long fingers 12, 14 and 16 spaced by relatively short fingers 13 and 15. The adjacent edge of hinge body 20 is provided with three relatively short fingers 22, 24 and 26 spaced by two relatively long fingers .23 and 25. The opposite edge of hinge body 10 is provided with an elongated locking tongue 17 and the opposite edge of hinge body 20 is provided with an elongated locking tongue 27.

Normally the hinge body, the fingers and the locking tongue will all be formed of a single sheet of material, usually relatively thin gauge metal which is both flexible and permanently deformable. The hinge element blanks may be formed by stamping from a single sheet and, as the finger bearing edges of both hinge bodies 10 and 20 interlock, both hinge bodies may be formed simultaneously with a minimum of waste material.

As seen in FIGS. 3 and 5 and 4 and 6, the fingers of the hinge element blanks 10 and 20 are bent to form the hinge element which is then adapted to be mounted on the edge of planar sheet which is to be hingedly connected to the mating edge of a corresponding sheet. The long fingers 12, 14, and 16, of hinge body 10 are bent to form pintle receiving eyes 18, whereupon the remainder of fingers 12 and 16 are laid flat abutting one surface of the hinge body with the free end being wrapped around the opposite edge of the hinge body to firmly secure the same thereto. Because finger 14 is aligned with aperture 11 and locking tongue 17, this middle finger is laid flat along a surface of the hinge body 10, but, rather than being locked around the opposite edge of the hinge body is bent through aperture 11 and back upon itself against the opposite surface of body 10. The relatively long fingers 23 and 25 of hinge body 20 are bent in exactly the same way to form hinge eyes 28 as illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 6.

The relatively short fingers 13 and 15 of hinge body 10 are bent back to overly a surface of the body 10 in parallel spaced relation to form hooks as best illustrated in FIG. 5, which hooks are adapted to embrace and grip an edge of the planar sheet to which the hinge element is to be attached. Similarly, the relatively short fingers 22, 24 and 26 of FIG. 2 are bent to form gripping hooks as illustrated in FIG. 6.

With the hinge elements thus formed as in FIGS. 3, and 4, 6 the hinge eyes 28 are adapted to be received between adjacent hinge eyes 18 in axial alignment therewith to permit the hinge pin or pintle to be threaded therethrough to hingedly connect the two elements. The elements are therefore ready for application to a pair of planar sheets to be hingedly connected together. Two such sheets are illustrated in FIG. 7 at 30 and 31 respectively. In order to provide a tight fitting joint between the two sheets their edges may be notched as at 32 or 33, although this is not necessary if a tight fit is immaterial.

In FIGS. 7 and 8 a hinge element as depicted in FIGS. 3 and 5 is illustrated as applied to sheet 30 and a hinge element as illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 6 is shown as applied to sheet 31. The hinge elements are applied, for example, by shoving the hinge element onto the notched edge 32 of sheet 30 with the edge being gripped by the hooks formed by fingers 13 and 15, which hooks overlie the opposite face of the sheet from that illustrated in FIG. 7 (as best illustrated in FIG. 8). Locking tongue 17 is then passed through sheet 30 adjacent the edge of the hinge body 10 (as best illustrated in FIG. 8) along the opposite face of sheet 30 to that shown in FIG. 7, back through aperture 11, and back upon itself and over a surface of a hinge body 10 beyond the edge thereof. Therefore, by means of the locking tongue 17 and the gripping hooks formed by short fingers 13 and 15, the hinge element is securely connected to the edge of sheet 30.

Provided the sheet 30 or 31 is formed of material which may be readily ruptured, as for example cardboard, the locking tongue 17 may be simply forced through the material in alignment with the aperture 11 or 21. If the planar sheet is of other material however, it may be necessary to preform apertures in the material to correspond with the location of the edge of the hinge body adjacent which the locking tongue is passed through the sheet, and to correspond with the location of the aperture 11 or 2-1 at which the locking tongue is again passed through the sheet. Such apertures could be punched out of the planar sheet material prior to assembly. The hinge body 20 is secured to sheet 31 in exactly the same manner except that three gripping hooks 22, 24 and 26 are available to assist locking tongue 27 in its function. When the two hinge elements are secured to sheets 30 and 31 they may be mated as illustrated in FIG. 7 and a pintle 35 passed through aligned eyes 18 and 28 to form the hinge connection.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. A hinge element for use with a planar sheet comprising, a flat hinge body, at least one pintle receiving member disposed along one edge of said hinge body, at least one gripping means disposed along said one edge of said hinge body and adjacent the pintle receiving member to embrace an edge of the planar sheet, a flexible, permanently deformable locking tongue projecting from 4 the opposite edge of said hinge body, and an aperture through said body in alignment with, and adapted to receive, said locking tongue.

2. A hinge element as defined in claim 1, wherein said pintle receiving member comprises a flexible, permanently deformable elongated finger, bent upon itself to form a pintle receiving eye adjacent said one edge of said body, and to embrace a surface of said hinge body and the opposite edge thereof.

3. A hinge element as defined in claim 1, wherein said gripping means comprises a flexible, permanently deformable finger turned upon itself to overlie a surface of said hinge body in spaced parallel relationship thereto.

4. A hinge element as defined in claim 3, comprising three pintle receiving members, each spaced from the other by one gripping means.

5. A hinge element as defined in claim 3, comprising three gripping means, each spaced from the other by one pintle receiving member.

6. A joint for hingedly connecting adjacent edges of two planar sheets comprising, a pair of fiat, rectangular hinge bodies adapted to overlie a surface of each sheet adjacent one edge thereof, at least one pintle receiving eye disposed along one edge of each hinge body adjacent the edge of said sheet, the pintle receiving eyes of both hinge bodies being in axial alignment to receive a pintle therethrough, a flexible, permanently deformable locking tongue extending perpendicularly from the center of the opposite edge of each hinge body, and a centrally disposed aperture through each hinge body, in alignment with and adapted to receive said locking tongue therethrough, each said locking tongue extending through one of the planar sheets adjacent said opposite edge of the hinge body, along the surface of said planar sheet remote from the hinge body, through said planar sheet and said aperture, and back along the surface of said hinge body remote from said planar sheet towards the opposite edge of said hinge body.

7. A joint as defined in claim 2 including lock-like sheet gripping means on said hinge bodies adjacent said pintle receiving eyes.

8. A joint as defined in claim 7 wherein one of said hinge bodies is provided with three gripping means spaced from each other by one eye, and the other of said hinge bodies is provided with three eyes spaced from each other by one gripping means.

9. A joint as defined in claim 8 wherein said eyes and said gripping means are of equal width.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,138,847 12/1938 Felix 40 -102 X 11,378 5/1902 Harcourt l6-128 2,532,028 11/1950 Mapson et al. 16137 BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner D. L. TROUTMAN, Assistant Examiner 

